And this morning we woke up, got the Quora, the Prius all packed up with Scott, Ben and Nico and we headed… to the Danish Pastry House.  This was our first stop because we needed breakfast in the form of super amazing Danish pastries.  No, not the horrible sweet excuse for sugared bread with dried lemon in the middle.  No, the real thing made by real Danes!  The flaky pastry just melts in your mouth.

And so off my diet.  I digress. LOL

I highly recommend the coffee.

After buying for us and the crew at MINI Oakville, who supplies the Danish Pastry House with their MINIs, we went, signed for and picked up our new wheels.

And such glorious wheels they are.  Spending about 3 to 4 hours tonight driving the car on some twisty roads, getting a feel for how the car handles.  Just amazing.

I’ve always preferred small cars, and despite this one possibly being a bit too small for people in the back seat, it will do very nicely for years to come, and certainly how I feel right now, I really want to keep this baby!  It’s definitely a dream car come true.

And this from my friend, Ben who is a car fanatic and wasn’t sure about the 3-cylinder engine from BMW:

Wow, now that’s more like it!  The car arrived at the dealer about an hour ago!

*fingers crossed for a Saturday delivery* However, I was given the heads up that it would be at the latest, Tuesday.  Maybe Monday?

Tracking Panel
ORDER ID:		STATUS: Delivered
CONSIGNMENT DATE: 2015-11-17 10:25		SCHEDULED PICKUP DATE: 11/17/2015
DELIVERED: 11/17/2015 14:56		ETA: 11/17/2015
CURRENT LOCATION: OAKVILLE, ON		Map
CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY CONCORD, ON		BUDDS BMW OAKVILLE, ON

We have arrival of the Kumakart in Ontario!  Based on the details, I am really hoping the truck delivers the car today or tomorrow and not on the 19th.  A 45 minute drive shouldn’t take two days and Budds’ BMW/MINI Oakville.  If It gets dropped off late today, that means the car could be ready for a Saturday pick up.  And if not, then Monday evening/Tuesday morning.

Tracking Panel
		STATUS: Enroute
CONSIGNMENT DATE: 2015-11-17 10:25		SCHEDULED PICKUP DATE: 11/17/2015
DUE DATE: 11/19/2015 23:59		ETA: 11/17/2015
CURRENT LOCATION: CONCORD, ON @ 2015-11-17 12:57		Map
CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY CONCORD, ON		BUDDS BMW OAKVILLE, ON

grey = completed, yellow = active

Well it looks like the MINI has passed customs! 2W has said the car is now in the delivered from status and now it’s with the PDC and onto a train. I figure 5 to 7 days to Toronto. This is going a bit faster than expected! And the last status update I’ll get until the car lands in Toronto.

Next up, tracking with Hansens, who I think is used to transfer the car from Concord to Oakville.

The Torrens arrived in Halifax on November 4th and departed today, November 5th, and is on it’s way to New York City.  As you can see above, the car was off loaded this morning at 9:43am and almost 12 hours later at 8:38pm, it was released into the hands of the Halifax Autoport where it will go through customs processing, probably starting tomorrow. We should see a “Delivered From” status once that happens.

Then it’s the way to go from Halifax to Toronto.  That trip only takes about 36 hours according to CN from Port to Toronto – Trailer or Container.  By railcar, it can take 5 to 8 days.

So the expectation I’m setting with myself is that we’ll have the car in two weeks.  I’m assuming two days for the paperwork, a week to ship to Toronto, and then 2 days for processing with the dealer.  That brings us to November 20th. 🙂

Interestingly, the Port of Halifax suggests that a Discharge Terminal Dwell of 2 days, Rail Terminal Dray of 0 (doubt that), Inland Rail of 1.9 days (36 hours).  So the car could be here next week, but I doubt that.  Rumour has it that CN is slow to process cars in Halifax.  On top of that, there is PDI and putting on the winter tires.

Here is a video about the Halifax Autoport – Imaging driving those cars onto the trains!

Here’s a neat video about what happens at the autoport between CN and Toyota with shipments of the Yaris from Europe.

The MV Torrens is only a few hours out from Halifax right now. By the time I get up in the morning, the ship should be docked or just docked and within a few hours, the Kumakart will be off the ship!

Next up, being shipped by train from Halifax to Concord just north of Toronto and then released to MINI Oakville where we pick it up.  This will probably be two weeks!  This is the part I can’t track, but I did hear that we’ll have it by November 25th!

After a brief swing through The Azores, the Torrens carrying the KUMAKART is finally pointed towards Halifax!  So far six nights at sea with 5 to 6 more to go!

I admit, I’ve become a bit obsessed with tracking our the ship our car is on. Checking the logs, I have noticed a few times it’s slowed down to a crawl over the three days since it left Southampton. Comparing to earlier logs from Panama to Germany, I suspect the ship is having some engine troubles. Arrival in Halifax has already been delayed by two days already according to 2W.  It is what it is!  We are still getting the car way earlier than expected.

Here is the map so far:

Yes, you can find Cars Live on YouTube.  For your viewing pleasure:

Episode 1:

Episode 2: